Vinh
New Member
- Joined
- Feb 8, 2015
- Messages
- 5
So in January of this year my girlfriend and I visited Repticon. Needless today we didn't not come home empty handed. We took home a sulcata tortoise which we found in a tank of roughly 10 or so from a supplier I will not name due to the details of this post. This is our story:
We didn't know anything about sulcatas nor did we have any prior knowledge of how to pick one. With that being said we decided to pick the one with the "prettiest shell" and the "cutest face". Our result, as shown above- Hermes. With little knowledge of how to sex sulcatas we named our newly found addition to our relationship Hermes since he/she seemed to be the fastest of the bunch. Little did I know our new found friend was deathly ill. Upon taking Hermes home we noticed some light clicking as well as an occasional squeal as he/she retracted completed into their shell. Even in the photo posted above you can spot a nose bubble from its nostril regardless of the fail focus or not. We took Hermes back the next day only to find out that the other sulcatas in the community tank were just about or even more lethargic than the one we had in our hand. They offered a return policy in exchange for another tortoise but nothing could replace the bond created in the few hours my girlfriend and I spent with the little one. However still faster and more lively than the others (still eating and active) we named it Hermes regardless of the gender and took it upon our selves to nurse it back to health.
(January 24th 2015)
As you can see Hermes still are no matter what, which really kept our hopes up. Our first priority was to go to a vet and see exactly what was wrong.
We first asked the gender. The bet couldn't tell us due to the age (of course) but did say chances are due to ratio it most likely will be a female. We accepted that (now I can type "she" and "her" without feeling heartless). From what I recall, the supplier did say she hatched around June/July of 2014. The vet's first response was that she was underweight, suffered from malnutrition, had a very soft shell, and most likely was exposed to low temperatures which resulted in her illness. All of this lead to the conclusion that Hermes had an Upper Respiratory Infection. This really sank our hearts but we were determined to help her as much as we could. I made sure every morning to take her out for natural sunlight as well as laying down with her and and feeding her myself so that she'd eat.
Needless to say after many restless nights checking up on her to make sure she was still breathing-
(January 28th 2015) as well as numerous trips to the vet for very questionable injections of Baytril that left our little girl limping... The clicking stopped along with the sneezes and squeals, and her shell started to harden up. Over time she was able to recover and become even more lively than before.
I started growing Spineless Prickely Pear Cacti as well as Dwarf Elephant Grass to feed her along with Kale and Baby Carrot slices.
(February 24th 2015)
It took her a while to start eating eating the cacti and the elephant grass, but trust me she loves it.
Our next dilemma was that we started to notice her scutes where getting further and further leaving the shell to become more brown than tan:
(February 7th 2015)
(Both April 9th 2015 out of order to show brown coloration)
We were throughly worried she might be pyramiding of some sort or that she was growing too fast. We were afraid we were either feeding her too much, which might've been a habit from when we would feed her for try to improve her health. Or that maybe it was an issue maybe because she might've not been exposed to proper lighting or she didn't get misted properly by the supplier. We are still wondering if this is a normal growth pattern. We always see pictures of other sulcatas having more tan than brown, which worries us because we of course want her to grow properly and live a happy life. Please feel free to ask any questions or comment about our story. If you could, please let me know if this growth rate is normal with the shell and such. & of course feel free to enjoy more pictures of Hermes (we still don't know the gender, we just assume she's a female). & yes all these pictures are posted in chronological order and the rest will be as well.
(March 1st 2015)
(March 13th 2015
Yes she did get stuck right there eating )
(March 28th 2015)
(April 26-28th 2015)
(May 10th 2015)
(June 11th 2015)
(July 17th 2015)
(July 23rd 2015)
(August 12th 2015)
(August 23rd 2015)
Enjoy! More pictures to come
We didn't know anything about sulcatas nor did we have any prior knowledge of how to pick one. With that being said we decided to pick the one with the "prettiest shell" and the "cutest face". Our result, as shown above- Hermes. With little knowledge of how to sex sulcatas we named our newly found addition to our relationship Hermes since he/she seemed to be the fastest of the bunch. Little did I know our new found friend was deathly ill. Upon taking Hermes home we noticed some light clicking as well as an occasional squeal as he/she retracted completed into their shell. Even in the photo posted above you can spot a nose bubble from its nostril regardless of the fail focus or not. We took Hermes back the next day only to find out that the other sulcatas in the community tank were just about or even more lethargic than the one we had in our hand. They offered a return policy in exchange for another tortoise but nothing could replace the bond created in the few hours my girlfriend and I spent with the little one. However still faster and more lively than the others (still eating and active) we named it Hermes regardless of the gender and took it upon our selves to nurse it back to health.
(January 24th 2015)
As you can see Hermes still are no matter what, which really kept our hopes up. Our first priority was to go to a vet and see exactly what was wrong.
We first asked the gender. The bet couldn't tell us due to the age (of course) but did say chances are due to ratio it most likely will be a female. We accepted that (now I can type "she" and "her" without feeling heartless). From what I recall, the supplier did say she hatched around June/July of 2014. The vet's first response was that she was underweight, suffered from malnutrition, had a very soft shell, and most likely was exposed to low temperatures which resulted in her illness. All of this lead to the conclusion that Hermes had an Upper Respiratory Infection. This really sank our hearts but we were determined to help her as much as we could. I made sure every morning to take her out for natural sunlight as well as laying down with her and and feeding her myself so that she'd eat.
Needless to say after many restless nights checking up on her to make sure she was still breathing-
(January 28th 2015) as well as numerous trips to the vet for very questionable injections of Baytril that left our little girl limping... The clicking stopped along with the sneezes and squeals, and her shell started to harden up. Over time she was able to recover and become even more lively than before.
I started growing Spineless Prickely Pear Cacti as well as Dwarf Elephant Grass to feed her along with Kale and Baby Carrot slices.
(February 24th 2015)
It took her a while to start eating eating the cacti and the elephant grass, but trust me she loves it.
Our next dilemma was that we started to notice her scutes where getting further and further leaving the shell to become more brown than tan:
(February 7th 2015)
(Both April 9th 2015 out of order to show brown coloration)
We were throughly worried she might be pyramiding of some sort or that she was growing too fast. We were afraid we were either feeding her too much, which might've been a habit from when we would feed her for try to improve her health. Or that maybe it was an issue maybe because she might've not been exposed to proper lighting or she didn't get misted properly by the supplier. We are still wondering if this is a normal growth pattern. We always see pictures of other sulcatas having more tan than brown, which worries us because we of course want her to grow properly and live a happy life. Please feel free to ask any questions or comment about our story. If you could, please let me know if this growth rate is normal with the shell and such. & of course feel free to enjoy more pictures of Hermes (we still don't know the gender, we just assume she's a female). & yes all these pictures are posted in chronological order and the rest will be as well.
(March 1st 2015)
(March 13th 2015
Yes she did get stuck right there eating )
(March 28th 2015)
(April 26-28th 2015)
(May 10th 2015)
(June 11th 2015)
(July 17th 2015)
(July 23rd 2015)
(August 12th 2015)
(August 23rd 2015)
Enjoy! More pictures to come
